Supreme Court upholds Election Commission's power to conduct SIR of electoral rolls; says exercise 'valid & non-arbitrary'

New Delhi: In a significant judgement, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the power of the Election Commission to conduct Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The court held that the Commission did not violate the Representation of People (RP) Act by ordering SIR of Bihar electoral rolls.

"The ECI has the authority to conduct the SIR exercise and did not transgress any statutory or constitutional provision. The EC did not violate any RP Act by ordering SIR of Bihar electoral rolls as such an exercise ensured purity of electoral roll and aided in free and fair elections," the bench said.

The bench said the EC is doing this exercise to ensure free and fair election.

"The entire process of SIR, including the staged procedures for deletions along with opportunity for claims and objections and the safeguards, makes it valid and non-arbitrary," the bench said.

The bench also held that the SIR exercise was based on legitimate means to ensure integrity of electoral rolls and had inbuilt safeguards.

The judgement came on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) exercise of voter lists being carried out by the Election Commission in various states.

The court had reserved judgment on January 29.

The issue before the court was whether the Election Commission has the power to conduct SIR in its present form under Article 326 of the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the related rules.

The pleas were filed by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR),

People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), political activist Yogendra Yadav, and MPs Mahua Moitra, Manoj Jha, K C Venugopal, Supriya Sule, Mujahid Alam, National Federation for Indian Women (NFIW), and others.

With this, a batch of pleas were filed before the top court challenging the constitutional validity of the entire exercise.

The petitioners claimed the exercise was in violation of Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, 326 of the Constitution of India and provisions of Representation of People (RP) Act, 1950 and Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

Subsequently, the court also impleaded all the political parties in the matter.